Sophomore Lily Fetch scored a late second period game winning goal, and freshman netminder Kiia Lahtinen recorded her first career shutout Friday night as the University of Maine upset #13 Northeastern 2-0 in women’s Hockey East action at Alfond Arena in Orono.
The teams played to a scoreless stalemate for nearly the first 40 minutes, before Fetch came through with her game winner for Maine at 18:29 of the second period. Jamie Grinder from the low slot passed it to Fetch who was gliding into the left faceoff dot. Fetch released a backhander from the very bottom of the circle from a tough angle that beat Northeastern goalie Lisa Jonsson for her eighth goal of the season that made it 1-0. The Huskies in trying to find the equalizer would pull Jonsson with 2:14 left in the third for an extra attacker, but Stephanie Jacob secured the Black Bears win with an empty net marker with 13.9 seconds left.
Lahtinen made 33 saves in the Maine win, as the native of Finland picked up that first career shutout in her 16th collegiate start. Mikayla Boarder picked up an assist on the empty net goal by Jacob. The Black Bears did not have any powerplay opportunities. Jonsson made 27 stops in the loss for Northeastern, as the Huskies went 0-1 on the powerplay. NU drops to 18-11-1 and 13-9-1 in Hockey East. Maine is now 9-20-1 and 8-14-1 in the conference. All 10 Hockey East teams make the playoffs, but the top six in the standings avoid an opening round game and go straight to the quarterfinals. The Black Bears are currently in sixth, two points better than seventh place UNH. Maine has four games left in the regular season with a two game series at Merrimack next weekend (Feb 14-15), before hosting Holy Cross for two games (Feb 21-22).
